Abstract
The temporal and vertical distributions of four N species, N03 −, NO2 −, total ammonia (T-NH3), and free ammonia (NH3), are documented for Onondaga Lake, an urban, polluted, hypereutrophic, dimictic, lake that receives a very high load of T-NH3. Nitrate and NO2 − were lost rapidly from the hypolimnion, and T-NH3 accumulated to high concentrations (maximum > 10 mgN L−1), after the onset of anoxia, consistent with the lake's high level of productivity. The concentrations of T-NH3, NH3 and N03 − that were maintained in the epilimnion (average concentrations at a depth of 1 m of 2.81, 0.16 and 0.91 mgN L−1, respectively), and concentrations of N02 − that developed in the epilimnion (maximum of 0.48 mgN L−1), were high in comparison to levels reported in the literature. These elevated concentrations are largely a result of the extremely high loads of T-NH3, and its precursors, received by the lake. Water quality problems in the lake related to the prevailing high concentrations of N species include potential toxicity effects and severe lake-wide oxygen depletion during fall turnover.
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Brooks, C.M., Effler, S.W. The distribution of nitrogen species in polluted Onondaga Lake, N.Y., U.S.A.. Water Air Soil Pollut 52, 247–262 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229437
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229437